University  or  Michigan 


me  Discovery  01  America 


OCTOBER  21,  1892. 


B.  f\.  HINSDfVLE,  LL.  D. 


THE  KLUSTLR  PUBLISHING  CO.,  PRINTERS  AND  CINDERS 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN. 


The  Discovery  of  America. 

A Commemoration  Address 


DELIVERED  IN  UNIVERSITY  HALL,  OCTOBER  21,  1892, 
By  the  Invitation  of  the  University  Senate. 


B.  A.  HINSDALE,  LL.  D. 

Professor  of  the  Science  and  the  Art  of  Teaching. 


Published  by  the  University. 
1892. 


’THE  REGISTER  PUBLISHING  CO.,  ENGRAVERS  AND  PRINTERS. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OE  AMERICA. 


Gentlemen  of  the  University  Senate: 

The  great  event  that  we  have  assembled  to  commemorate  came 
on  a flood-tide  of  great  events.  In  1453  the  Turks  took  Constanti- 
nople, thereby  putting  an  end  to  the  Roman  Empire  and  extinguish- 
ing the  pharos  of  learning  that  had  burned  on  the  Bosphorus 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  but  also  scattering  the  Greek  scholars  over 
Europe  and  contributing  to  the  revival  of  letters.  In  1454  some 
printer  at  Mayence,  perhaps  Gutenberg,  published  the  thirty-one 
line  indulgence,  thus  demonstrating  the  art  of  printing  with  mov- 
able types.  In  1487  Dias  discovered  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
which  Da  Gama  doubled  ten  years  later  on  his  great  voyage  to  the 
Indies.  In  1492  the  Western  Mohammedan  Empire  came  to  an 
end.  In  1517  Luther  nailed  his  theses  to  the  door  of  the  Castle 
Church  in  Wittenberg  and  began  the  Protestant  Reformation.  In 
1519-1522  Magellan  sailed  through  the  strait  that  bears  his  name, 
named  and  crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  not  only  touched  hands  with 
Da  Gama  but  made  the  first  circumnavigation.  In  1543  Copernicus 
published  his  “De  Orbium  Revolutionibus,”  thus  preparing  the 
way  for  Galileo,  Kepler,  and  Newton.  Within  the  limits  of  these 
years  other  things  of  great  importance  were  done.  Latin  and  Greek 
letters  were  practically  restored  to  men,  modern  art  attained  its 
highest  perfection,  the  boundaries  of  knowledge  were  immensely 
expanded,  mental  freedom  was  gained,  and  the  human  mind  born 
again.  Within  the  rest,  civilization  changed  front;  hitherto  it  had 
faced  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  henceforth  it  faces  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
Well  might  Humboldt  ask  where  in  the  history  of  nations  we  can 
find  another  epoch  fraught  with  such  triumphs  of  the  human  mind. 
The  New  World  was  not,  indeed,  uncovered  and  placed  in  the  clear 


4 


light  of  knowledge  at  any  one  time,  or  by  any  one  man;  it  was  a 
process  rather  than  an  act,  occupying  many  years  and  enlisting 
many  agents,  but  the  transaction  of  October  12,  1492,  so  far  tran- 
scends all  the  rest  that  historians  have  appropriately  given  it  the 
name  that  in  strictness  belongs  to  the  whole  series, — The  DiscovERY 
of  America. 

In  the  long  series  of  antecedents  culminating  in  this  discovery, 
scientific  ideas  and  practical  achievements  are  so  blended  that  it  is 
hard  to  tell  which  of  the  two  contribute  most  to  the  interest  of  the 
story.  At  a university  commemoration,  certainly,  it  would  be 
unpardonable  not  to  give  the  scientific  elements  due  recognition. 

Knowledge  of  the  earth  has  been  widened  mainly  by  war,  com- 
merce, missionary  undertakings,  and  travel;  but  the  facts  that  the 
soldier,  the  trader,  the  missionary,  and  the  traveler  have  collected, 
students  have  always  stood  ready  to  systematize.  More  narrowly, 
the  History  of  Geography  presents  four  stages  of  progress:  (1)  Cer- 
tain facts  are  observed  or  discovered ; (2)  from  these  data  a general 
conception  or  theory  is  deduced;  (3)  additional  facts  are  accumu- 
lated; (4)  this  new  material  is  distributed  according  to  the  old 
theory  or  scheme,  or  compels  the  formation  of  a new  one. 

The  first  men  to  frame  a theory  of  the  earth  represented  it  as  a 
flat,  disc-like  surface  of  small  area.  We  read  of  the  “circle  of 
the  earth  ” in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  and  of  a “ compass  upon  the 
face  of  the  depth”  in  the  Proverbs.  The  world  of  Homer  is  a 
circle,  having  Greece  as  a center,  drawn  with  a radius  long  enough, 
to  include  Asia  Minor,  the  Valley  of  the  Lower  Nile,  and  most  of 
Italy,  the  whole  surrounded  by  the  Ocean.  How  naturally  this 
conception  came  to  the  mind  of  the  primitive  geographer,  we  cannot 
fail  to  see  the  moment  we  put  ourselves  in  his  place.  To  the 
unscientific  mind  seeing  is  believing;  and  Sir  John  Herschel  very 
justly  observes  that  “almost  all  of  the  conclusions  of  astronomy 
stand  in  open  and  striking  contradiction  with  those  of  superficial 
and  vulgar  observation  and  with  what  appears  to  every  one,  until 
he  has  understood  and  weighed  the  proofs  to  the  contrary,  the  most 
positive  evidence  of  his  senses.” 


5 


Time  compelled  the  abandonment  of  the  disc  theory  and  the 
creation  of  a new  one.  Cold  shut  out  from  the  north  the  races  that 
contributed  to  geographical  knowledge  and  heat  shut  them  out 
from  the  south,  while  within  the  two  oceans  east  and  west  they 
encountered  no  insuperable  mete  or  bound.  The  relations  of  the 
three  old  continents  to  one  another  and  to  the  waters  that  furnished 
the  theaters  of  commerce — the  Mediterranean,  the  Red  Sea,  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  the  Indian  Ocean — gave  to  history  an  east-and- 
west  movement.  The  Phoenicians  laid  one  hand  upon  India  and 
the  other  upon  Britain.  As  a result,  the  men  who  now  thought  out 
the  problem  conceived  of  the  earth  as  a flat,  trencher-like  surface  of 
much  greater  extent  from  east  to  west  than  from  north  to  south. 
Traces  of  this  theory  are  thickly  scattered  over  the  pages  of  ancient 
literature,  and  we  have  survivals  of  it  in  the  terms  “ latitude”  and 
“ longitude”  still  in  current  use. 

Still  fuller  knowledge  compelled  the  abandonment  of  the  paral- 
lelogram theory.  Men  who  became  somewhat  emancipated  from 
superficial  and  vulgar  observation,  saw  the  heavenly  bodies  in 
different  positions  in  different  latitudes,  at  different  hours  of  the 
day  and  at  different  seasons  of  the  year;  they  saw  day  and  night 
varying  in  length  with  latitude  and  with  the  season;  they  saw  that 
the  shadow  cast  by  the  earth  in  eclipses  of  the  moon  is  round,  and 
that  ships  “hull  down”  as  they  go  out  to  sea.  In  these  observa- 
tions originated  the  central  ideas  of  geographical  and  astronomical 
science,  the  sphericity  of  the  earth  and  its  revolution  around  the 
sun.  Whether  he  originated  these  ideas  or  not,  they  bore  in 
antiquity  the  name  of  Pythagoras,  and  more  than  two  thousand 
years  later  Galileo  was  condemned  for  teaching  “a  false  Pythago- 
rean notion.”  On  the  conception  of  the  sphericity  of  the  earth, 
such  men  as  Eratosthenes,  Hipparchus,  and  Ptolemy  built  up  the 
system  known  to  scholars  as  the  Greek  Geography.  To  be  more 
definite,  this  geography  may  be  described  as  follows:  (1)  The 

ancients  accumulated  a great  mass  of  geographical  material;  (2) 
they  developed  the  spherical  theory  of  the  earth;  (3)  they  system- 
atized the  materials  that  they  accumulated;  (4)  they  invented  a 
complete  geographical  apparatus,  maps,  globes,  parallels  and  merid- 


6 


ians,  zones  and  equator,  projections,  and  the  accepted  division  of 
the  circle.  As  to  the  relations  of  the  earth  and  the  sun,  the  Greek 
philosophers  were  not  agreed. 

The  known  world  when  the  Graeco-Roman  civilization  had 
reached  its  culmination  was  quadrilateral  in  form,  lying  northwest 
and  southeast.  Roughly  speaking,  a right  line  drawn  from  the 
southern  tip  of  Scandinavia  to  the  northern  end  of  the  Caspian  Sea, 
and  thence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  was  its  northern  boundary, 
and  a similar  line  connecting  Cape  Non  and  Cape  Guardafui,  and 
thence  extending  eastward,  its  southern  boundary.  This  world 
covered  some  sixty  degrees  of  latitude,  and  twice  that  extent  of 
longitude.  Within  these  limits,  however,  were  extensive  regions  of 
which  the  best  informed  men  knew  little  or  nothing;  while  the 
relations  of  the  world  that  they  knew  to  the  world  that  they  did  not 
know,  was  then  an  insolvable  problern.  Two  antagonistic  theories 
were  evolved,  the  Oceanic  and  the  Continental.  Eratosthenes,  start- 
ing perhaps  from  the  Homeric  notion  of  a circumfluent  ocean,  held 
that  all  the  seas  and  oceans  were  connected.  Among  the  writers 
who  held  this  theory  was  Pomponius  Mela,  who  maintained,  in  his 
treatise  written  about  the  year  50  A.  D.,  that  the  only  obstacle  to 
the  circumnavigation  of  Africa  was  the  intense  heat  of  the  torrid 
zone.  Hipparchus,  and  still  more  strongly  Ptolemy,  repelled  the 
idea  of  outside  oceans,  and  made  land  the  connecting  tissue  of  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  Ptolemy  believed  in  the  indefinite  northward 
and  eastward  extension  of  Asia,  and  a similar  southward  extension 
of  Africa;  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  the  two  conti- 
nents came  together  in  the  far  southeast,  thus  holding  the  Indian 
Ocean  in  their  firm  embrace.  How  very  different  were  these  two 
theories,  a glance  at  the  maps  of  the  world  according  to  Mela  and 
Ptolemy  will  show.  The  first  was  evidently  much  the  more  favorable 
to  maritime  adventure  and  discovery;  and  it  is  pertinent  to  observe 
that  the  great  discoverers  and  geographers  of  modern  times  belong 
to  the  lineage  of  Eratosthenes  and  not  of  Ptolemy.  And  yet  it  was 
Ptolemy  who  gave  the  Greek  geography  its  final  shaping,  and  who 
controlled  for  centuries  the  thinking  of  scientific  men  on  these  sub- 
jects. 


7 


Those  who  accepted  the  Greek  geography,  at  least  those  who 
leaned  to  the  Oceanic  theory,  could  hardly  fail  to  speculate  on  the 
relations  of  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  earth  as  they  knew 
it.  Aristotle  wrote:  “They  who  maintain  that  Spain  and  India  are 
separated  simply  by  the  sea  do  not  appear  to  maintain  an  incredible 
notion.’’  Strabo  reports  Eratosthenes  as  saying:  “If  the  extent  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  did  not  prevent,  it  would  be  possible  for  us  to 
sail  from  Spain  to  India  along  the  same  parallel.”  Strabo  himself 
threw  out  this  conjecture:  “It  is  very  possible  that  in  the  same  tem- 
perate zone,  near  the  parallel  of  Thinae  or  Athens,  which  passes 
through  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  besides  the  world  we  inhabit,  there 
may  be  one  or  more  other  worlds  peopled  by  beings  different 
from  ourselves.”  Seneca  was  still  bolder:  “In  tardy  years  the 
epoch  will  come  in  which  the  ocean  will  unloose  the  bonds  of 
nature,  and  the  great  earth  will  stretch  out,  and  the  sea  will  dis- 
close new  worlds;  nor  will  Thule  be  the  most  remote  on  the  globe.” 
Such  passages  as  these  are  valuable,  not  merely  as  constituting  a 
part  of  the  great  store  of  Greek  thought,  but  also  as  links  in  the 
chain  of  causes  that  finally  led  up  to  the  great  event  which  we  com- 
memorate. 

In  fact  a plurality  of  worlds  was  rather  a favorite  idea  of  ancient 
men  of  science.  It  is  conjectured  that  it  was  the  thought  of  these 
other  worlds  that  caused  the  great  Alexander  to  weep  because  he 
had  nothing  more  to  conquer.  Cicero  at  one  time  contemplated 
embodying  current  learned  opinion  in  a work  on  geography. 
“Cicero’s  popularization  of  this  doctrine  of  more  oikoumenai  than 
one,”  says  Mr.  Payne,  “fell  in  with  the  ideas  of  the  Augustan  age. 
The  dream  of  the  Greek  conqueror  was  transferred  to  the  victorious 
people  who  had  succeeded  to  his  heritage. . Poets  sang  of  the  worlds 
which  still  awaited  the  rule  of  the  master  of  the  oikoumene.  Geo- 
graphers boldly  spoke  of  an  alter  or  bis  or  second  and  new  world.” 
However  it  may  have  been  with  scientific  interest,  practical  seaman- 
ship and  economical  and  political  needs  were  quite  too  feeble  in 
that  age  to  warrant  attempts  to  test  these  notions. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Greek  geography  was  at  any 
time  generally  accepted;  the  vulgar  were  still  bound  by  the  apparent 


8 


evidence  of  their  senses  to  the  disc  or  parallelogram  theory;  but 
men  who  were  abreast  of  the  scientific  work  of  their  time  appear 
t o have  accepted  its  fundamental  ideas  as  fully  as  the  same  class  of 
men  accept  the  current  scientific  theories  of  our  own  day. 

With  the  final  triumph  of  Christianity  over  heathenism,  the 
Christian  hierarchy  took  charge  of  the  human  mind.  Pagan  science, 
literature,  and  philosophy  were  placed  under  ban.  The  Middle 
Ages  drew  their  dark  mantle  over  Europe.  In  the  great  declension 
of  knowledge  that  now  ensued,  perhaps  no  sciences  suffered  more 
than  geography  and  astronomy.  Whole  regions  of  the  earth  fell 
out  of  sight;  the  oilcoumene  shrank  up,  and  the  old  and  crude  theories 
of  the  earth  were  revived.  In  the  Patristic  Geography  the  “ firma- 
ment” of  Genesis,  the  “circle”  of  Isaiah,  the  “compass”  of  the 
Proverbs,  the  “tabernacle”  of  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews,  the  “foun- 
dations” and  the  “ends”  of  the  earth,  and  “the  running  about  of 
the  sun,”  took  the  places  of  the  ideas  that  the  Greeks  had  deduced 
by  long  and  careful  observation.  In  the  sixth  century  Cosmas 
Indicopleustes,  an  Alexandrian  monk  who  had  been  a merchant  and 
a traveler,  wrote  his  famous  “Christian  Topography,”  which  is  at 
once  a great  delight  to  the  curious  and  also  a good  example  of 
Middle  Age  cosmography.  Cosmas  made  the  universe  a box  or 
chest,  in  the  bottom  of  which,  in  the  northern  part,  under  the  firm- 
ament, he  placed  a lofty  conical  mountain,  around  which  the 
heavenly  bodies  revolve.  In  summer  the  sun  wheels  around  the 
top  of  the  cone,  in  the  winter  around  the  base,  thus  causing  the 
long  days  and  the  short  days  of  the  two  seasons.  This  system, 
established  by  demonstration  from  Divine  Scriptures,  it  was  not  law- 
ful for  a Christian  to  doubt. 

But  by  and  by  the  clouds  began  to  lift.  The  Saracens  had  a 
genius  for  science  as  well  as  for  conquest,  and  they  considerably 
widened  the  circle  of  geographical  knowledge.  The  Jews  also, 
traders  and  sojourners,  made  their  contribution  to  the  common  stock. 
The  Crusades  revealed  to  the  Western  nations  extensive  regions  of 
which  before  they  knew  little,  and  also  threw  open  the  portals  to 
Central  Asia,  inviting  the  merchant  and  traveler  to  enter.  Mission- 


9 


ary  adventures  were  made  into  distant  countries.  In  the  annals  of 
those  times  romance  abounds,  but  perhaps  there  is  nothing  more 
romantic  than  the  notion  of  Prester,  or  Presbyter,  John,  a fabled 
Christian  king  whom  fancy  sometimes  placed  in  Africa  and  some- 
times in  Asia,  but  always  beyond  the  verge  of  the  known  world,  and 
to  find  whom  persistent  efforts  were  made.  The  Mongols,  who 
under  Genghis  Khan  and  his  successors  established  their  power  from 
eastern  China  to  Poland,  although  barbarians,  rather  invited  than 
repelled  contact  with  Christendom.  For  a full  century  all  Asia 
north  of  the  great  central  east-and-west  mountain  ranges  was  thrown 
open  to  Western  men.  About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
two  Franciscan  monks,  Friar  John,  sent  by  Innocent  IV.,  and 
Rubruquis,  sent  by  St.  Louis,  o£'  France,  made  their  way  as  far 
east  as  Karakorum,  the  capital  of  the  Grand  Khau,  where  they  fell 
in  with  Chinese  from  whom  they  learned  that  Asia  did  not  extend 
indefinitely  eastward,  as  Ptolemy  had  taught,  but  was  bounded  by 
an  ocean,  and  henceforth  this  knowledge  had  an  important  bearing 
on  the  course  of  events.  A little  past  the  middle  of  the  same  cen- 
tury, Nicolo  and  Maffeo  Polo,  Venetian  merchants,  made  their  way 
by  Constantinople,  the  Crimea,  the  Volga,  and  Bokhara  to  the 
court  of  Kublai-Khan,  who  then  danced  before  the  eyes  of  living 
men  as  he  now  dances  before  the  eyes  of  readers  of  romance,  the 
same  who  did  in  Xanadu 

“ A stately  pleasure-dome  decree.” 

In  1269  the  brothers  returned  home,  charged  with  a message  from 
the  Khan  to  the  Pope. 

In  1271  the  Polos  undertook  a second,  and,  as  it  turned  out,  a 
much  more  important  journey  to  the  same  distant  country,  this  time 
taking  with  them  Marco  Polo,  son  of  Nicolo.  faking  a more  south- 
ern route  than  before,  they  reached  their  destination  in  1275.. 
Young  Marco  was  soon  established  in  the  court  of  the  Grand  Khan,, 
and  attached  to  his  person,  while  his  father  and  uncle  engaged  in 
trade.  Possessing  an  active  intelligence,  and  moving  here  and  there 
over  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Khan’s  empire,  Marco’s  opportunities 
for  gathering  information  were  the  best  that  could  be  desired.  InL 
1292  the  Polos  started  homeward,  making  their  way  by  sea  around 


10 


the  Golden  Chersonese,  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  thence  overland  to 
the  Euxine,  and  then  by  the  Bosphorus  to  Venice,  where  they  had 
long  been  given  up  for  dead.  A few  years  later  Marco  Polo  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Genoese,  and  while  languishing  in  prison  he 
dictated  to  an  amanuensis  the  wonderful  story  that  is  popularly 
known  as  “The  Travels  of  Marco  Polo.”  Sooner  or  later  this  book 
was  published  in  the  principal  languages  of  Europe,  and  its  marvel- 
ous tales  of  Cathay  and  Cipango,  as  China  and  Japan  are  called, 
not  only  made  a deep  impression  upon  men’s  minds,  but  were  fol- 
lowed by  great  practical  results.  Even  in  our  own  day,  great 
scholars  have  been  glad  to  devote  their  learning  to  the  elucidation 
of  this  book.  Colonel  Yule,  the  ablest  of  these,  says*  “all  other 
travellers  of  that  time  are  but  stars  of  a low  magnitude  beside  the 
full  orb  of  Marco  Polo.”  Everything  considered,  he  was  the  great- 
est traveler  that  ever  lived.  These  three  Venetians  were  tlfe  first 
Europeans  to  cross  the  continent  of  Asia,  and  to  make  a sea  voyage 
around  its  southeastern  projection.  However,  they  were  not  the 
only  Christians  of  those  times,  or  indeed  the  first  ones,  to  visit  the 
Central  parts  of  Asia;  the  fact  is,  such  visits  were  by  no  means 
uncommon.  Among  the  books  that  turned  men’s  minds  to  the  East 
in  the  ensuing  age,  Sir  John  Mandeville’s  strange  mixture  of  truth 
and  fiction  should  not  be  forgotten. 

From  an  early  time  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Indian  Seas 
were  in  commercial  relations.  The  fleets  of  Solomon  and  Hiram 
sailed  to  Ophir  and  Tarshish,  fetching  thence  gold  and  silver,  ivory, 
apes,  peacocks,  almug  trees,  and  precious  stones.  Much  learning 
has  been  expended  in  efforts  to  identify  Ophir  and  Tarshish;  the 
first  must  have  lain  somewhere  in  the  East,  for  it  was  reached  from 
Ezion-Gebir,  on  the  Bed  Sea.  Herodotus  celebrated  the  wealth  and 
splendor  of  the  Indies.  All  through  the  Macedonian  and  Roman 
periods  Western  men  eagerly  sought  the  wealth  of  Ormus  and  of 
Ind.  The  silks  that  the  Romans  of  Virgil’s  time  so  much  prized 
came  from  China,  although  the  Romans  knew  nothing  about  the 
Chinese.  It  might  be  thought  that  commerce  would  have  compelled 
a larger  geographical  knowledge,  if  it  did  not  grow  out  of  it;  but  we 
must  remember  that  the  Indian  trade  was  carried  on  by  an  extensive 


11 


organization  of  middlemen  and  intermediate  depots.  In  the  Grseco- 
Roman  period  the  channels  of  communication  were  three  in  number. 
One  lay  by  the  Bosphorus,  the  Euxine,  and  the  Caspian  to  the 
Oxus,  and  thence  to  the  Indus.  A second  ran  up  the  Nile  and 
across  the  desert  to  the  Bed  Sea.  The  third  crossed  Syria  and  de- 
scended the  Euphrates  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  How  rich  was  the  com- 
merce that  flowed  through  these  channels*,  the  cities  of  Constantinople, 
Tyre,  Palmyra,  and  Alexandria  attest.  In  Mediaeval  times  the  com- 
mercial cities  of  Italy  were  fed  by  the  same  feeding-pipes.  Genoa 
seized  the  northern  route,  while  Venice  at  different  times  monopo- 
lized the  middle  and  the  southern  routes.  Still,  these  cities  were  not 
terminal  points;  the  Eastern  products,  flowing  through  the  Alpine 
passes,  reached  Augsburg  and  Nuremberg,  the  Hanse  Towns  and  the 
cities  of  Flanders.  The  policy  of  the  Italian  maritime  cities  was 
largely  controlled  by  the  silks  and  spices  and  gums  of  the  East,  the 
barbaric  pearl  and  gold;  and  how  directly  their  prosperity  depended 
upon  this  commerce  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  their  decline  dates 
from  the  time  when  their  monopoly  came  to  an  end.  In  the  inven- 
tory of  the  Indian  commodities,  we  find  aloes,  balsam,  sandal -wood, 
camphor,  cinnamon,  cardamon,  cassia,  cloves,  cochineal,  frankincense, 
ginger,  gum-lac,  indigo,  ivory,  laudanum,  mastic,  musk,  mace,  nut- 
megs, nutgalls,  pearls,  emeralds,  turquoises,  rubies,  sapphires,  dia- 
monds, pepper,  rhubarb,  saffron,  raw  silk,  porcelain,  sugar,  damask, 
gold  and  silver  thread,  samite,  camlet  and  other  cloths,  and  brazil 
wood,  from  which  Brazil  derives  its  name.  To  a great  extent  well- 
to-do  Europeans  came  to  regard  these  articles,  not  as  luxuries,  but  as 
necessaries.  Without  spices,  ginger,  pepper,  cloves,  and  cinnamon, 
the  table  lost  half  its  pleasures.  So  long  as  the  Phoenicians,  the 
Greeks,  and  the  Romans  controlled  the  channels  of  communication 
to  the  East,  the  westward  flow  of  these  articles  had  been  practically 
unimpeded.  Nor  did  the  advent  of  the  Mohammedan  make  much 
difference;  the  Saracen  was  a civilized  man,  thoroughly  commercial 
in  spirit  and  habit.  But  the  Turk — the  unspeakable  Turk — was  a 
barbarian  bent  on  destruction;  and  when  he  got  his  clutches  op  the 
vast  region  extending  from  the  Nile  to  the  Hellespont,  by  his  tolls 
and  robberies  he  largely  reduced  the  supply  of  Eastern  products  in 


12 


European  markets  and  greatly  enhanced  prices.  Thus,  at  the  very 
time  when  Western  men  were  finding  themselves  able  to  buy  more 
of  the  coveted  articles,  they  were  confronted  by  a prospect  of  their 
total  loss.  Nor  did  this  involve  merely  a denial  of  the  pleasures  of 
taste;  it  involved  also  the  loss  of  a most  lucrative  commerce  and  of 
the  resulting  political,  military,  and  naval  power.  It  is  said  that  as 
late  as  the  e'arly  days  of  the  East  India  Company,  the  profits  of  a 
voyage  to  the  Eastern  seas  rarely  fell  below  one  hundred  per  cent., 
and  that  commonly  they  reached  two  hundred  per  cent. 

The  seizure  of  western  Asia  and  of  Egypt  by  the  Turks  coin- 
cided with  some  important  changes  in  the  West, — as  increase  of 
wealth,  quickening  intelligence,  growth  of  enterprise,  and  valuable 
practical  improvements  in  navigation.  The  influence  of  the  new 
discoveries  in  geography  began  to  be  felt.  Emancipating  them- 
selves in  part  from  theological  subjects  and  the  theological  spirit, 
men  began  once  more  to  cultivate  natural  knowledge  with  thorough 
zeal.  A desire  for  direct  sea-route  communications  with  the 
East,  not  liable  to  interruptions,  began  to  take  hold  of  men’s 
minds.  And  so  some  bold  spirits  began  to  ask  whether  the 
Oceanic  theory  or  the  Continental  theory  of  the  earth  was  the  true 
one;  or,  more  narrowly,  whether  there  was  not  an  outside  route  to 
the  lands  where  silks  and  spices  grew,  where  the  sea-waves  laved 
shores  inlaid  with  mother  of  pearl,  where  diamond  fields  wTere  rich 
and  abundant,  and  where  the  rivers  rolled  their  waters  over  shining 
dust.  To  find  such  a route  to  the  gorgeous  East  wTas  the  master 
passion  of  the  great  period  known  in  history  as  the  Age  of  Maritime 
Discovery.  Nor  did  the  desire  to  bring  the  East  and  the  West  into 
closer  relations  expend  itself  in  the  discovery  of  the  roads  around 
the  two  great  Capes;  it  is  seen  in  the  unavailing  efforts  to  find 
northwest  and  northeast  passages,  and  in  our  present  railways  and 
canals  uniting  the  waters  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  continents. 

Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  fourth  son  of  King  John  1.  and 
Phillippa,  daughter  of  John  of  Gaunt,  was  born  in  1394.  After 
winning  a high  reputation  as  a soldier  and  man  of  affairs,  the  Prince 
at  an  early  age  threw  himself  with  ardor  into  the  Eastern  Question  of 


13 


his  time.  Adopting  the  views  thrown  out  by  Pomponius  Mela 
relating  to  the  peninsular  form  of  Africa,  he  raised  for  consideration 
and  practical  solution  the  problem  of  its  circumnavigability. 
Besides  reaching  the  Indies,  the  Prince  hoped  to  divert  the  stream 
of  gold  that  flowed  from  the  Gold  Coast  by  Timbuctoo  and  Tunis 
into  Mohammedan  hands,  and  also  to  enlarge  the  bounds  of  Mother 
Church.  Establishing  himself  on  the  promontory  of  4 Sagres,  the 
Sacred  Promontory  of  antiquity,  he  founded  an  observatory  and 
school  of  nautical  science,  into  which  he  drew  youths  who  desired  to 
learn  the  mysteries  of  navigation.  Mr.  Major  says  of  the  Navi- 
gator, as  Prince  Henry  is  commonly  called:  “ Until  his  day  the 

pathway  of  the  human  race  had  been  the  mountain,  the  river,  and 
the  plain,  the  strait,  the  lake,  and  inland  sea;  but  he  it  was  who 
first  conceived  the  thought  of  opening  a road  through  the  unexplored 
ocean,  a road  replete  with  danger  but  abundant  in  promise.”  Mr. 
Major  says  further:  ‘‘If,  from  the  pinnacle  of  our  present  knowl- 

edge, we  mark  on  the  world  of  waters  those  bright  tracks  which, 
during  four  centuries  and  a half,  have  led  to  the  discovery  of  mighty 
continents,  we  shall  find  them  all  lead  us  back  to  that  same  inhos- 
pitable point  of  Sagres,  and  the  motive  which  gave  it  a royal 
inhabitant.” 

The  enterprise  that  the  Prince  now  took  in  hand  was  fraught 
with  peculiar  difficulty  and  peril.  First  of  all  was  the  great  ques- 
tion of  the  intercommunication  of  the  two  oceans.  The  terrors  with 
which  the  Western  imagination  had  long  invested  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
are  well  shown  by  one  of  its  names,  the  Sea  of  Darkness.  As  to  the 
torrid  zone,  the  common  opinion  was  expressed  by  Pliny:  “The 
middle  of  the  earth,  on  which  is  the  path  of  the  sun,  is  parched  and 
set  on  fire  by  the  luminary  and  is  consumed  by  being  so  near  the 
heat.  “Whosoever  passes  Cape  Non  will  return  or  not,”  was 'a  cur- 
rent Portuguese  proverb.  Withal,  the  undertaking  must  necessarily 
entail  great  expenses. 

It  is  neither  possible  nor  necessary  to  follow  the  Portuguese  cap- 
tains as,  one  after  another,  they  creep  down  the  western  coast  of 
Africa.  In  1418-1420  Porto  Santo  and  Madeira  were  rediscovered. 
In  1435  Cape  Bojador  was  passed.  In  1460  the  Prince  died,  but 


14 


not  until  he  had  made  what  was,  in  its  inception,  a personal  under- 
taking a national  one.  The  kings  of  Portugal,  who  were  his  near 
kinsmen,  after  some  delay,  began  again  to  send  expeditions  down  the 
coast.  In  1471  the  equator  was  crossed,  in  1484  the  mouth  of  the 
Congo  reached,  and  in  1487  Dias  reached  what  he  called  Stormy  Cape, 
but  what  the  King  with  more  courage  renamed  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
In  1497  Da  Gama  awakened  the  wrathful  vengeance  of  the  Genius 
of  the  Cape;  and,  standing  first  to  the  northward  along  the  eastern 
shore,  and  then  eastward  across  the  open  ocean,  finally  dropped  his 
anchors  in  the  harbor  of  Calicut,  a port  on  the  Malabar  coast,  thus 
demonstrating  the  theories  of  Eratosthenes,  Pomponius  Mela,  and 
Henry  the  Navigator. 

But  ancient  writers  had  pointed  out  a AVestern  sea-route  to  the 
Indies  even  more  plainly  than  an  Eastern  one.  AVhat  is  more,  in 
1267  Boger  Bacon  made  a collection  of  quotations  from  old  writers 
with  the  view  of  showing  that  Spain  and  India  were  much  less  widely 
separated  than  wTas  commonly  thought;  and  in  1410  Pierre  d’  Ailly, 
Cardinal  Bishop  of  Cambray,  copied  these  quotations  into  his  “Imago 
Mundi,”  one  of  the  famous  books  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Mr. 
Lowell  makes  Columbus  say,  in  recounting  the  sources  of  his  faith: 

“For  I believed  the  poets;  it  is  they 
AVho  utter  wisdom  from  the  central  deep, 

And,  listening  to  the  inner  flow  of  things, 

Speak  to  the  age  out  of  eternity.” 

Certainly  the  poets  occupied  themselves  with  the  theme.  Dante 
makes  Ulysses,  at  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  exhort  his  companions  not 
to  deny  the  unpeopled  world,  and  Pulci  makes  the  Devil  confute  the 
old  theory  that  these  Pillars  are  the  western  limit  of  the  earth. 

“ Know  that  this  theory  is  false;  his  bark 
The  daring  mariner  shall  urge  far  o’er 
The  western  wave,  a smooth  and  level  plain, 

Albeit  the  earth  is  fashioned  like  a wheel. 

Man  was  in  ancient  days  of  grosser  mould, 

And  Hercules  might  blush  to  learn  how  far 
Beyond  the  limits  he  had  vainly  set, 

The  dullest  sea-boat  soon  shall  wing  her  way. 


15 


Men  shall  descry  another  hemisphere, 

Since  to  one  common  center  all  things  tend; 

So  earth,  by  curious  mystery  divine 

Well  balanced,  hangs  amid  the  starry  spheres. 

At  our  Antipodes  are  cities,  states, 

And  thronged  empires,  ne’er  divined  of  yore. 

But  see,  the  Sun  speeds  on  his  western  path 
To  glad  the  nations  with  expected  light.”1 

Through  a member  of  his  court,  King  Alfonso  V.,  of  Portugal, 
applied  to  Toscanelli,  the  venerable  Florentine  astronomer,  to  know 
whether  he  could  not  recommend  to  him  a shorter  road  to  the  East 
than  the  one  in  course  of  prosecution  on  the  African  coast. 
Toscanelli  replied  on  June  25,  1474,  stating  that  he  had  formerly 
spoken  to  his  correspondent  about  such  a road.  This  route  lay  to 
the  west  across  the  Atlantic,  and  was  exhibited  on  the  sailing  chart, 
made  by  the  astronomer’s  own  hand,  accompanying  the  letter.  “Do 
not  wonder,”  he  said,  “at  my  calling  west  the  parts  where  the 
spices  are,  whereas  they  are  commonly  called  east,  because  to  per- 
sons sailing  persistently  westward  those  parts  will  be  found  by 
courses  on  the  under  side  of  the  earth.”  Unfortunately,  there  is  no 
known  copy  of  this  map;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  reproduce  it  in  sub- 
stance, because,  first,  the  description  found  in  the  letter  is  quite 
full,  and,  secondly,  some  years  later  Martin  Behaim,  in  constructing 
the  celebrated  Nuremberg  globe,  sometimes  called  ‘‘  The  World 
Apple,”  appears  to  have  followed  it  in  laying  down  the  waters  and 
islands  off  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia.  In  these  details,  however, 
Toscanelli  did  little  more  than  copy  from  Marco  Polo.  Why  the 
King  wrote  to  Toscanelli,  and  why  he  dropped  the  subject  on  receiv- 
ing so  favorable  an  answer,  we  can  only  conjecture.  The  corres- 
pondence is  extremely  important  because  it  shows  that  the  King  was 
not  wholly  absorbed  in  the  African  interprise,  but  mainly  because 
it  contains  the  first  practical  suggestion  ever  made,  so  far  as  we 
know,  for  reaching  the  East  by  sailing  into  the  West. 

The  historical  critics  have  long  been  very  busy  with  Christopher 
Columbus,  and  there  is  hardly  a fact  in  relation  to  him  which  has 
not  been  challenged.  By  his  own  testimony  the  city  of  Genoa  was 


1See  Prescott’s  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  II,  117. 


16 


the  place  of  his  nativity,  but  the  same  testimony  is  not  decisive  as 
to  the  time.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  he  was  born  in  1436  or  1446, 
the  scale,  inclining,  perhaps  toward  the  first  of  these  dates.  His 
father  was  a weaver,  or  wool-comber,  a member  of  the  burgher  class, 
and  always  involved  in  financial  difficulties.  Of  the  Discoverer’s 
youth  we  know  very  little.  For  a time  he  seems  to  have  followed 
the  same  trade  as  his  father.  We  cannot  tell  when  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  sea.  Mr.  Lowell  causes  him  to  say: 

li from  my  boyhood  up  I loved  to  hear 

The  tall  pine-forests  of  the  Appenine 

Murmur  their  hoary  legends  of  the  sea,” 

and  well  may  it  have  been  so.  Neither  do  we  know  the  extent  of 
his  attainments  in  learning  and  science.  Sir  Arthur  Helps  remarks 
that  “the  greatest  geographical  discoveries  have  been  made  by  men 
conversant  with  the  book  knowledge  of  their  own  time,”  and  this 
was  true  of  Columbus.  He  wrote  Latin,  studied  geography  care- 
fully, picked  up  some  acquaintance  with  astronomy  and  mathe- 
matics, and  became  an  expert  draughtsman.  It  was  perfectly 
natural  that  he  should  adopt  maritime  pursuits.  Relatively  at  least 
the  greatest  days  of  Venice  and  Genoa  had  already  passed,  and  the 
Western  states,  especially  Portugal,  were  assuming  new  promi- 
nence; but  the  Italians  still  surpassed  all  competitors  in  the  science 
and  art  of  navigation.  Witness  the  list  of  Italians  who  distinguished 
themselves  under  foreign  flags  in  the  Maritime  Age:  Cadamosto, 
the  two  Cabots,  Vespucius,  Verrazano,  and  Columbus.  In  the 
fifteenth  century  an  enterprising  Genoese  sought  his  fortune  on  the 
sea  as  naturally  as,  in  the  twelfth  century,  an  adventurous  knight- 
errant  sought  his  in  the  Holy  Land. 

From  the  days  of  Prince  Henry,  Portugal  held  out  attractions 
to  adventurous  seafaring  men  not  found  in  any  other  country. 
Drawn  by  these  attractions,  no  doubt,  Columbus  made  his  way  to 
Lisbon  about  1472,  where  his  younger  brother  Bartholomew  had 
already  preceded  him.  In  1473  he  married  Phillippa,  daughter  of 
a distinguished  Italian  navigator,  Bartholomew  Perestrello,  whom 
Prince  Henry  had  once  made  governor  of  Porto  Santo,  an  island 
which  lies  but  a little  to  one  side  of  the  route  to  the  Cape.  On  the 


17 


same  island  Columbus  appears  to  have  lived  with  his  wife,  making 
good  use  of  the  sailing  charts  and  nautical  memoranda  that  his 
father-in-law  had  left  be-hind  him  on  his  death.  Here  it  was,  as 
some  have  thought,  but  without  the  slightest  proof,  that  he  con- 
ceived the  great  purpose  with  which  his  name  is  identified.  He 
soon  removed  to  Lisbon,  where  he  devoted  his  time  mainly  to  map- 
making and  to  sea  voyages.  He  tells  us  that  more  than  once  he 
sailed  in  the  Portuguese  ships  that  were  prosecuting  Prince  Henry’s 
errand,  and  that  he  also  made  a voyage  into  the  far  Northern  seas. 
We  must  not  lose  sight  of  this  connection  of  Columbus  with  the 
Portuguese  voyages.  After  calling  the  discovery  of  America  an 
achievement  which  formed  the  connecting  link  between  the  old 
world  and  the  new,  Mr.  Major  says  “the  explorations  instituted  by 
Prince  Henry  of  Portugal  were  in  truth  the  anvil  upon  which  that 
link  was  forged.” 

One  of  the  unfortunate  facts  in  the  life  of  Columbus  is 
that  we  cannot  certainly  tell  the  time  when  he  formed  his  plan  of  a 
Western  voyage.  The  earliest  document  showing  that  he  was  con- 
sidering the  subject  is  a letter  written  to  him  by  Toscanelli,  in 
answer  to  a request  for  information.  It  is  undated.  This  letter 
was  written,  however,  posterior  to  1474,  for  the  major  part  of  it  is 
a transcript  of  the  letter  dispatched  by  the  Florentine  to  King 
Alfonso  in  that  year.  Toscanelli  also  sends  a duplicate  of  the  map 
that  he  had  sent  to  the  King.  Toscanelli  recognizes  his  “great  and 
noble  desire”  to  go  to  “the  place  where  the  spices  grow,”  and  in  a 
later  letter  commends  as  “ noble  and  grand”  Columbus’s  project  of 
“sailing  from  east  to  west,  according  to  the  indications  furnished  by 
the  map.”  “For  these  reasons  and  many  others  that  might  be 
mentioned,”  he  says,  after  a summary  of  arguments,  “I  do  not 
wonder  that  you  who  are  of  great  courage,  and  the  whole  Portuguese 
nation,  which  always  had  men  distinguished  in  all  such  enterprises, 
are  now  influenced  with  a desire  to  execute  the  said  voyage.”  These 
letters  prove  that  Columbus  had  now  matured  a project,  and  that 
there  was  a probability  of  its  being  soon  tested.  “I  am  much 
pleased  to  see,”  remarks  the  astonomer,  “that  I have  been  well 
understood,  and  that  the  voyage  has  become  not  only  possible  but 


18 


certain.”  This  hope  was  not,  however,  to  be  realized.  Few  docu- 
ments relating  to  the  subject  are  more  valuable  than  these  letters,, 
and  it  is  matter  of  regret  that  we  cannot  fix  their  dates. 

Ferdinand  Columbus  informs  us  that  his  father  was  convinced 
of  the  feasibility  of  his  project  by  these  arguments:  (1)  Natural 
reason,  or  conclusions  drawn  from  science;  (2)  authority  of 
writers,  amounting  to  little  more  than  speculations  of  the  ancients;. 
(3)  testimony  of  sailors,  comprehending  in  addition  to  popular 
rumors  of  lands  discovered  in  Western  voyages,  such  relics  as 
appeared  to  have  floated  to  the  European  shores  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic.1  Further  on  we  shall  see  in  what  the  originality 
of  Columbus  consisted;  here  it  is  important  to  comment  upon  his 
relations  to  Toscanelli. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  eminent  Florentine  astronomer  did 
not  obtain  his  ideas  from  Columbus.  But  whether  the  Genoese 
formed  the  project  of  a voyage  into  the  West  independently,  or 
borrowed  it  from  Florence,  there  is  small  reason  to  think  that  we 
shall  ever  know.  It  is  possible  that  King  Alfonso  applied  to  Tos- 
canelli for  information  on  the  suggestion  of  Columbus,  but  it 
is  improbable.  It  is  certain  that  Toscanelli  had  discussed  the  sub- 
ject with  Martinez,  the  member  of  the  court  referred  to,  before 
1474,  and  the  idea  may  have  drifted  from  their  correspond- 
ence into  Columbus’s  mind.  But  granting  that  Columbus  struck  out 
the  plan  for  himself,  wre  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  he  resorted 
to  Florence  for  information  to  clear  up  his  own  mind  or  to  convince 
skeptics,  or  for  both  reasons,  and  that  he  carried  Toscanelli’s  sailing- 
chart  with  him  on  his  first  voyage. 

There  is  no  dispute  that  Columbus  studied  with  utmost  care 
whatever  he  could  find  relating  to  the  subject  that  came  to  absorb 
all  his  thoughts.  He  read  Marco  Polo  and  lived  in  societies  that 
were  saturated  with  his  famous  book.  He  thumbed  and  rethumbed 
the  “Imago  Mundi,”  carried  it  with  him  to  sea,  and  covered  his 
own  well-worn  copy  over  with  annotations.  It  is  interesting  to 
know,  by  the  way,  that  this  particular  copy  has  been  preserved;  it 


i Prescott:  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  II,  116. 


19 


is  at  Seville,  one  of  the  most  curious  and  valuable  documents  found 
in  the  Biblioteca  Columbina.  He  dwelt  fondly  also  upon  the  pass- 
age in  the  fourth  book  of  Esdras  that  makes  the  earth  six  parts 
land  and  one  water,  a fact  that  throws  light  upon  his  great  blunder 
as  to  the  distance  separating  Spain  and  Cathay,  and  also  shows  that 
his  mind  was  by  no  means  emancipated  from  authority.  Then  the 
mythical  islands  that  men  scattered  on  the  surface  of  the  Western 
Sea  had  a certain  influence  on  his  mind. 

Our  American  poet  makes  Columbus  hear  Biarne’s  keel 
Crunch  the  gray  pebbles  of  the  Yinland  shore,” 
and  Scandinavian  scholars,  inspired  by  patriotism,  discover  the  more 
important  antecedents  of  his  voyage  in  the  far  North.  It  seems 
highly  probable  that  the  Northmen  made  their  way  by  Iceland  and 
Greenland  to  the  American  coast  about  the  beginning  of  the  elev- 
enth century,  and  that  there  were  occasional  communications 
between  Scandinavia  and  America  for  a century  and  more;  but  it  is 
perfectly  certain  that  these  adventurers  never  dreamed  that  they 
had  sailed  beyond  the  confines  of  Europe,  that  their  voyages  made 
little  if  any  impression  on  the  Southern  nations,  and  that  they  were 
finally  forgotten  even  in  the  North,  left  buried  for  centuries  in  the 
heap  of  the  Norse  Sagas.  Nor  is  there  the  slightest  evidence  that 
Columbus  ever  heard  of  these  voyages,  or  that  they  would  have  had 
the  slightest  practical  interest  for  his  mind,  since  they  were  not  at 
all  in  the  line  of  his  ideas;  on  the  other  hand,  his  conduct  refutes 
the  theory  of  Norse  influence. 

Columbus  made  a determined  effort  to  enlist  the  King  of  Por- 
tugal in  his  plan.  For  obvious  reasons,  that  monarch,  above  all 
others,  should  have  been  the  man  to  listen  to  him  with  consideration, 
but  for  reasons  that  are  not  altogether  clear  he  finally  rejected  the 
overture.  Disappointed  where  he  had  most  reason  to  expect  success, 
Columbus  now  made  his  way  to  Spain. 

At  the  close  of  1484,  when  he  is  supposed  to  have  arrived, 
Catholic  Spain  was  in  the  throes  of  the  final  struggle  with  Moham- 
medan Spain,  and  the  revenues  of  their  Majesties  were  all  devoted 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Columbus’s  project  was  a greater 


20 


novelty  here  .han  it  had  been  in  Portugal,  for  the  larger  kingdom 
was  quite  in  the  rear  of  the  smaller  one  in  maritime  development. 
Some  wiseacres  objected  that  the  very  novelty  of  the  scheme  con- 
demned it.  The  Patristic  geography  was  duly  produced;  the  old 
Biblical  texts  and  quotations  from  the  Fathers  were  all  brought  out 
of  the  armory  and  refurbished.  Two  years  after  his  arrival,  the 
Genoese  was  admitted  to  the  service  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and 
for  several  years  his  ideas  were  more  or  less  under  consideration. 
Sometimes  an  attache  of  the  Court,  sometimes  a soldier  in  the  camp, 
sometimes  an  intercessor  at  the  door  of  some  great  nobleman  or 
powerful  ecclesiastic,  he  urged  his  suit  with  a zeal  and  steadfastness 
that  made  him  a world’s  example.  But  all  to  no  immediate  pur- 
pose. Slowly,  however,  he  won  over  to  his  side  several  influential 
persons — the  Duke  of  Medina-Celi;  Juan  Perez,  at  one  time  the 
Queen’s  father  confessor;  Deza  and  Talavera,  the  Boyal  confessors; 
Mendoza,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  Quintanilla  and  Santangel,  the 
Royal  treasurers,  and  also  some  ladies  of  high  esteem  at  Court.  At 
last  Isabella,  to  whom  Columbus  especially  looked  for  favor,  prom- 
ised to  give  the  subject  serious  attention  as  soon  as  the  war  should 
come  to  an  end.  In  January,  1492,  Grenada  surrendered,  the 
unfortunate  Boabdil  heaved  “ the  last  sigh  of  the  Moor,”  and  the 
Queen  declared  herself  ready  to  fulfill  her  promise. 

New  difficulties  now  arose.  The  conditions  that  Columbus 
made  were  of  such  a nature  that  even  Talavera  advised  the  Queen 
to  reject  them.  The  negotiations  were  broken  off  promptly,  and 
apparently  forever.  Columbus,  well  aware  that  he  had  no  time  to 
lose,  mounted  his  mule  and  rode  out  of  Grenada  resolved  to  transfer 
his  quest  to  France.  As  the  walls  of  the  Moorish  city  receded 
behind  him,  Santangel  made  a final  and  effective  appeal  to  Isabella; 
a courier  mounted  on  a swift  horse  was  dispatched  to  bring  Colum- 
bus back  to  the  Court;  Ferdinand  was  finally  won  over,  an  agree- 
ment was  arrived  at,  and  the  necessary  papers  were  duly  executed. 

These  are  the  principal  articles  of  the  contract,  signed  at  Santa 
Fe  by  the  King  and  Queen  April  17,  as  formulated  by  Irving: 

“1.  That  Columbus  should  have  for  himself  during  his  life, 
and  for  his  heirs  and  successors  forever,  the  office  of  Admiral  in  all 


21 


the  lands  and  continents  which  he  might  discover  or  acquire  in  the 
ocean,  with  similar  honors  and  prerogatives  to  those  enjoyed  by  the 
high  admiral  of  Castile  in  his  district. 

“2.  That  he  should  be  viceroy  and  governor-general  over  all 
the  said  lands  and  continents,  with  the  privilege  of  nominating 
three  candidates  for  the  government  of  each  island  or  province,  one 
of  whom  should  be  selected  by  the  sovereigns. 

“3.  That  he  should  be  entitled  to  reserve  for  himself  one  tenth 
of  all  pearlSj  precious  stones,  gold,  silver,  spices,  and  all  other 
articles  and  merchandises,  in  whatever  manner  found,  bought,, 
bartered,  or  gained  within  his  admiralty,  the  costs  being  first 
deducted. 

“4.  That  he  or  his  lieutenant  should  be  the  sole  judge  in  all 
causes  and  disputes  arising  out  of  traffic  between  those  countries  and 
Spain,  provided  the  high  admiral  of  Castile  had  similar  jurisdiction 
in  his  district. 

“5.  That  he  might  then  and  at  all  after  times  contribute  an 
eighth  part  of  the  expense  in  fitting  out  vessels  to  sail  on  this  enter- 
prise, and  receive  an  eighth  part  of  the  profits.” 

Another  document,  executed  April  30,  conferred  the  title  of 
Don  upon  Columbus,  his  heirs  and  successors. 

The  scenes  now  change;  the  map-maker  and  projector  becomes 
the  discoverer  and  the  founder.  On  Friday,  August  3,  1492, 
having  placed  his  voyage  under  the  protection  of  the  Holy  Trinity,, 
he  sailed  from  Palos,  and  on  Friday,  October  12,  made  his  land-fall. 
All  these  religious  items  have  been  carefully  pressed  into  service  by 
the  Catholic  coterie  who  advocate  his  canonization.  After  spend- 
ing many  weeks  in  the  Western  seas  and  discovering  many  islands, 
including  Hayti  and  Cuba,  he  returned  to  Spain  in  March,  1493,  to 
receive  such  honors  as  kings  bestow  upon  the  favorites  of  fortune. 
American  history  had  begun. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  deal  with  Columbus’s  later  history.  An 
old  Greek  could  desire  no  better  proof  of  the  doctrine  of  Nemesis 
than  his  life;  his  serious  troubles  date  from  the  culmination  of 
his  career,  and  continue  to  multiply  until  he  dies  poor  and 


22 


neglected  in  Valladolid,  in  1506.  As  still  further  illustrations  of 
the  uncertainties  hanging  over  his  life,  we  may  mention  that  the 
identity  of  the  island  that  the  Indians  called  Guanahani  and  he 
San  Salvador  is  warmly  disputed;  that  it  is  uncertain  whether  his 
ashes  rest  in  San  Domingo  or  in  Havana,  and  that  of  all  the  num- 
erous portraits  of  him  not  one  is  admitted  to  be  authentic. 

A thousand  times  has  the  failure  to  call  by  his  name 
the  world  to  which  Columbus  piloted  the  way,  been  declared  a 
grievous  wrong.  Had  such  a suggestion  been  made  to  him,  he 
would  have  repelled  it  with  passionate  warmth.  He  interpretated 
everything  that  he  and  others  discovered  in  the  West  in  the  light  of 
his  own  strong  prepossessions.  He  had  brooded  on  Asia,  he  sailed 
for  Asia,  his  great  plans  turned  on  Asia,  and  it  was  Asia  that  he  had 
found.  To  listen  to  anything  else  would  have  been  treason  to  the 
passion  of  his  life.  Some  facts  confirmed  his  prepossessions.  He 
found  the  Bahamas  and  the  Antilles  in  about  the  longitude  where 
he  expected  to  find  the  Asiatic  coast  and  the  islands  skirting  it.  He 
promptly  identified  Hispaniola  as  Cipango,  and  on  his  second  voyage, 
having  followed  the  southern  shore  of  Cuba  a long  distance  without 
finding  an  end,  that  he  might  convince  the  gainsayers  at  home,  he 
caused  his  crews  to  take  an  oath  that  the  island  was  the  mainland  of 
Asia.  It  was  in  this  faith  that  he  called  the  countries  which  he 
found  The  Indies,  the  natives,  Indians.  He  had  sought  what  he 
did  not  find;  he  had  found  what  he  did  not  seek.  We  know  that 
his  failure  was  a far  grander  triumph  than  his  success  could  have 
been,  but  this  thought  lay  below  the  horizon  of  his  day.  How 
pathetic  it  is  to  find  him  writing  not  long  before  his  death:  “If  any- 
one does  not  give  me  credit  for  having  discovered  the  remaining 
parts  of  India,  it  simply  arises  from  personal  hostility.” 

But  we  must  not  think  Columbus  blinder  than  others.  Asia 
had  completely  enthralled  the  men  of  that  age,  and  they  could  see 
no  other  vision  Avhen  they  looked  into  the  West.  History  is  full  of 
examples,  including  both  the  Cabots,  and  explorers  as  late  as  John 
Smith,  Henry  Hudson,  and  La  Salle.  John  Cabot  thought  that  he 
had  landed  in  the  territory  of  the  Grand  Kahn;  he  had  landed  in 


23 


the  region  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Nor  must  we  forget  the  difficulty 
of  the  task  in  hand.  When  the  first  Western  discoveries  were  made, 
men  did  not  know  the  size  of  the  earth  or  the  eastward  extension  of 
Asia,  and  the  ablest  geographers  could  not  reasonably  be  expected 
to  co-ordinate  the  islands  and  shores  that  were  found  by  a hundred 
navigators,  here  and  there,  often  separated  by  long  stretches  of 
water  or  land  of  which  they  were  wholly  ignorant.  As  intimated  in 
the  beginning,  Columbus  did  not  on  October  12,  1492,  really  dis- 
cover America;  what  he  did  was  to  perform  the  first  act  in  the  long 
series  that  constitute  such  discovery.  Many  ships  sailed,  many  land- 
falls were  made,  and  much  new  knowledge  was  gathered  and  co-or- 
dinated before  an  idea  of  the  New  World  could  begin  to  form  in  the 
minds  of  men.  The  man  who  named  America  did  not  know  what 
he  was  naming  any  more  than  Columbus  knew  what  he  was  discov- 
ering; and  it  was  not  until  Magellan  had  crossed  the  Pacific  that  the 
new  discoveries  could  be  seen  in  anything  like  their  true  relations. 
The  slow  emergence  of  America  from  the  Sea  of  Darkness,  which 
can  be  fully  understood  only  by  one  who  has  looked  carefully  into 
the  history  of  American  cartography,  is  the  best  possible  illustration 
of  the  enormous  difficulty  attending  the  organization  of  a mass  of  new 
facts  by  ardent  men  whose  minds  are  filled  with  a false  hypothesis. 
Thoroughly  to  cast  Asia  out  of  the  map  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
was  the  work  of  two  hundred  years. 

Americus  Vespucius  was  long  supposed  to  have  robbed  Co- 
lumbus of  the  honor  that  was  his  due.  This  is  now  known  to  be  a 
baseless  charge.  Without  attempting  to  guess  the  Vespucian  riddle, 
which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  perplexing  in  the  history  of  Western 
explorations,  we  may  state  the  main  facts  in  relation  to  the  baptism 
of  the  New  World. 

In  April  or  May,  1503,  Vespucius  wrote  a letter  to  Lorenzo 
d’Medici,  giving  an  account  of  his  voyage  of  1501-2,  the  so-called 
third  of  the  Vespucian  voyages,  in  which  he  had  followed  the  South 
American  coast  far  to  the  south  of  Cape  San  Roque.  Deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  lands  that  he  had  visited,  which  lay  wholly  outside  of 
the  range  of  ancient  ideas  or  of  recent  discoveries,  he  thought  it 


24 


proper  to  call  them  a new  world.  The  translator  and  editor  of  a 
Latin  version  of  this  letter  that  appeared  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  year,  caught  up  these  words  and  made  them  the  title  of  the  little 
pamphlet,  “Mundus  Novus\”  Numerous  editions  of  this  tract  were 
published  in  different  languages,  and  among  others  a Latin  edition  at 
Strasburg,  in  1505,  under  the  editorship  of  a young  man  whom  we 
shall  soon  have  occasion  to  mention  again.  In  September,  1504, 
Vespucius  wrote  a letter  to  Soderini,  a magistrate  of  Florence  and 
an  old  school  fellow,  in  which  he  gave  a rough  outline  of  his 
four  voyages.  This  letter  was  published  in  Florence,  July, 
1506. 

At  the  time  with  which  we  are  dealing  there  was  a small  group 
of  scholars,  sometimes  called  an  academy  or  college,  clustered  around 
a printing  press  in  Saint  Die,  in  the  Vosges  Mountains,  the  very 
place,  strangely  enough,  where  Pierre  d’Ailly  had  written  his 
“Imago  Mundi. ” While  these  scholars  were  employed  upon  a new 
edition  of  Ptolemy,  there  was  brought  to  them  a French  copy  of 
Vespucius’s  letter  to  Soderini,  which  was  at  once  handed  over  to 
Martin  Waldseemtiller  and  Matthias  Ringman,  who  were  more 
especially  charged  with  the  work,  to  be  used  as  material.  Ringman 
was  the  man  who  had  brought  out  the  Strasburg  edition  of  the  letter 
to  Lorenzo,  and  was  therefore  already  familiar  with  the  idea  of  a 
new  world.  Too  impatient  to  await  the  tardy  appearance  of  the 
Ptolemy,  the  two  scholars  executed  a work  that  they  named  “ Cos- 
mographise  Introductio.”  This  was  a palpable  case  of  book- 
making; the  work,  consisting  of  52  leaves,  contained  a simple 
treatise  on  cosmography  and  the  full  text  of  the  letter  to  Soderini. 
The  last  chapter  of  the  original  part  of  the  work,  following  descrip- 
tions of  Asia,  Europe,  and  Africa,  as  the  three  grand  divisions  of 
the  earth  as  taught  by  Ptolemy,  contained  this  pregnant  sen- 
tence: 

“ But  now  these  parts  have  been  more  extensively  explored  and 
another  fourth  part  has  been  discovered  by  Americus  Vespucius  as 
will  appear  in  what  follows:  wherefore  I do  not  see  what  is  rightly 
to  hinder  us  from  calling  it  Amerige  or  America,  i.  e.,  the  land 
of  Americus,  after  its  discoverer  Americus,  a man  of  sagacious 


25 


mind,  since  both  Europe  and  Asia  have  got  their  names  from 
women.”  1 

The  “ Cosmographiae  Introductio  ” was  published  in  1507,  and 
attained  a considerable  circulation.  Its.  principal  author,  Waldsee- 
mtiller,  who,  according  to  the  prevailing  fashion  of  the  times, 
renamed  himself  Hylacomylus,  baptized  America.  “But  for 
these  seven  lines,”  says  Mr.  Harisse,  “ written  by  an  obscure 
geographer  in  the  Vosges,  the  Western  Hemisphere  might  have  been 
called  The  Land  of  the  Holy  Cross,  or  Atlantis,  or  Iberia,  or  New 
India,  or  simply  The  Indies,  as  it  is  designated  officially  in  Spain 
to-day.”  In  fact,  a part  of  the  land  thus  named  had  already 
received  the  first  of  these  titles. 

We  must  not  suppose  that  the  Saint-Di6  scholar  dreamed  what 
he  was  doing.  He  intended  merely  to  call  a part  of  the  country 
that  we  know  as  Brazil,  America.  The  name  was  soon  expan- 
ded. On  John  Ruysch’s  map  of  1508  so  much  of  South 
America  as  appears  is  called  Terra  Sanctse  Crucis,  sive  Mundus 
Novus,  while  the  discoveries  that  had  been  made  in  the  north  are 
represented  as  appendages  of  Asia;  on  the  map  assigned  to  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  about  1514,  America  takes  the  place  of  this  double  desig- 
nation, and  on  Mercator’s  projection,  1541,  Labrador,  Nova  Scotia, 
Florida,  Mexico,  and  Mundus  Novus  are  connected  by  continuous, 
though  very  inaccurate  coast  lines,  making  a continent  wholly  dis- 
tinct and  separate  from  Asia,  while,  as  if  to  solemnize  the  marriage, 
the  first  three  letters  of  the  name  AMERICA,  now  given  to  the 
whole  continent,  are  placed  above  the  site  of  Lake  Superior,  and 
the  last  four  west  of  the  River  Plate. 

Most  unfortuately,  the  controversies  about  the  Great  Admiral 
have  involved  his  character  and  his  life.  The  historical  critics  have 
been  as  busy  with  the  man  as  with  his  story.  Neither  by  nature 
nor  by  acquired  habit  was  Washington  Irving  a critical  historian; 

iNunc  vero  et  hae  partes  sunt  latius  lustratae  et  alia  quarta  pars  per  Ameri- 
cum  Vesputium  (ut  in  sequentibus  audietur)  inventaest  quam  non  video  cur  quis 
jure  vetet  ab  Americo  inventore  sagacis  ingenii  viro  Amerigen,  quasi  Americi  ter- 
rain, sive  Americam  dicendam,  cum  et  Europa  et  Asia  a mulieribus  sua  sortita  sint 
nomina. 


26 


lie  believed  that  erudition  might  even  become  pernicious;  he  believed 
more  in  the  Muse  of  History  than  in  the  Science  of  History;  he 
thought  the  exemplars  of  the  world  worth  preserving;  he  deprecated 
casting  the  demi-gods  down 'from  their  high  places:  and  of  all  his 
heroes  perhaps  Columbus  most  powerfully  impressed  his  imagination. 
It  is  from  his  glowing  pages  that  a great  majority  of  Americans 
have  derived  their  ideas  of  the  Discoverer.  With  all  deference  to 
Mr.  Irving  and  his  theories  of  history,  we  must  admit  that  he  has 
overdrawn  the  picture.  A living  American  scholar  who  has  written 
one  of  the  learned  works  called  out  by  the  Centenary,  tends  far 
toward  the  other  extreme.  Mr.  Fiske  does  full  justice  to  Mr.  Wind- 
sor’s ‘‘Christopher  Columbus”  when  he  separates  “between  his 
contributions  toward  a correct  statement  of  the  difficult  geographical 
questions  connected  with  the  subject,”  which  he  calls  “the  work  of 
an  acknowledged  master  in  his  chosen  field,”  and  his  biographical 
estimate  of  the  man.  “No  one  can  deny,”  says  Mr.  Fiske,  “that 
Las  Casas  was  a keen  judge  of  men,  or  that  his  standard  of  right  and 
wrong  was  quite  as  lofty  as  any  one  has  reached  in  our  own  time. 
He  had  a much  more  intimate  knowledge  of  Columbus  than  any 
modern  historian  can  ever  hope  to  acquire,  and  he  always  speaks  of 
him  with  warm  admiration  and  respect.  But  how  could  Las  Casas 
ever  have  respected  the  feeble,  mean-spirited  driveller  whose  portrait 
Mr.  Winsor  asks  us  to  accept  as  that  of  the  Discoverer  of  America  ?”' 
Still,  Columbus  was  not  one  of  the  few  men,  if  indeed  there  be  a 
few,  who  can  challenge  measurement  by  the  standard  of  the  ages. 
While  he  was  in  advance  of  his  time,  he  yet  craves  judgment  in 
many  things  by  its  canons. 

It  is  charged  that  he  was  avaricious  and  greedy  of  power.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  in  the  negotiations  at  Granada,  he  does  not 
appear  as  a single-minded  devotee  of  science,  content  to  find  his 
reward  in  the  solution  of  a problem  of  the  centuries.  But  on  this 
very  point  Las  Casas  warmly  commends  him  for  his  “great  constancy 
and  loftiness  of  soul.”  We  must  remember  that  Columbus  was 
looking  to  another  and,  to  him,  higher  end  than  a new  road  to  East- 
ern Asia.  In  the  grand  vision  that  filled  his  brain,  the  Western 


27 


voyage  was  subordinate  to  a new  attempt  to  recover  the  Holy 
Places  from  the  infidel.  So  completely  was  he  under  the  dominion 
of  mystical  ideas,  that  he  did  not  know  that  the  days  of  the 
Crusaders  were  over.  He  regarded  himself  as  God’s  chosen  agent 
for  enlarging  the  realm  of  the  true  faith,  and  especially  for  the 
recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher;  the  thought  is  present  with  him  in 
all  his  negotiations;  it  lights  up  his  eye  as  he  walks  the  deck  of  his, 
caravel  at  midnight;  he  makes  a solemn  vow  that,  if  he  is  successful, 
he  will  himself  organize  a crusade  of  fifty  thousand  foot  and  four 
thousand  horse;  and  in  his  last  will  and  testament,  written  at  Valla- 
dolid when  he  is  old  and  poor  and  friendless,  he  commands  his  son, 
if  ever  he^hould  recover  his  lost  rights,  to  carry  out  the  purpose 
that  has  lain  so  heavy  upon  his  father’s  heart.  We  should  remem- 
ber, too,  that  the  scientific  impulse  was  weak  in  those  days  compared 
with  ours;  the  working  force  in  the  Age  of  Discovery  was  far  less 
the  scientific  spirit  than  practical  advantage.  Indeed,  it  can 
not  be  said  that  that  spirit  was,  so  far  as  kings  and  princess  were  con- 
cerned, an  appreciable  quantity.  For  the  rest,  we  may  admit  that 
the  Discoverer  of  America  was  not  superior  to 

“ That  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind.” 

Sometimes  the  atrocious  system  that  led  to  the  enslavement  and 
extermination  of  the  , Indians  is  laid  at  Columbus’s  door.  This 
charge  we  cannot  examine  save  in  a single  feature.  It  would  appear 
plain  that  this  system  was  engendered  by  causes  and  conditions  lying 
deep  in  the  civilization  of  the  time,  and  largely  beyond  the  control 
of  any  single  mind.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  line 
separating  believers  and  infidels  was  sharply  drawn,  and  the  idea 
that  true  religion  can  be  propagated  only  by  persuasion  still  lay 
below  the  spiritual  horizon  of  men.  In  the  long  struggle  between  the 
Cross  and  the  Crescent,  the  Spanish  temper  had  been  whetted  to  the 
sharpest  edge.  Ecclesiastics  taught  that  America  was  the  new  Land  of 
Promise,  and  that  Christians  adventuring  into  it  might  emulate 
Israel  under  the  lead  of  Josbua.  For  the  pursuit  of  the  poor 
savage  of  Hispaniola  and  Cuba,  the  bloodhound  surpassed  the 
Spaniard  only  in  fleetness  and  keenness  of  scent.  Moreover,  the 
colonists  were  of  a very  heterogenous  character;  idleness,  arrogance, 


28 


turbulence,  avarice,  impatience  of  control  by  a foreigner,  and  extra- 
vagant expectations  abounded  in  the  new  colony.  Had  Mr. 
Winsor  placed  due  stress  on  these  facts,  he  would  perhaps  have 
hesitated  to  say  in  his  final  summary  that  Columbus  might 
have  been  the  father  of  the  New  World,  and  could  have  made  its 
youth  benignant. 

As  to  slavery,  the  ideas  and  practices  of  the  time  are  well 
known.  Both  Christian  and  Mohammedan  captains  depended  upon 
slaves  to  propel  their  galleys,  and  long  years  after  Columbus  the 
slavery  of  the  oar  was  one  of  the  most  revolting  forms  of  the  strife 
between  Catholic  and  Protestant.  Prince  Henry,  whose  nobility  of 
mind  is  not  doubted,  sanctioned  the  enslaving  of  negroej^  thus  mak- 
ing himself  privy  to  that  form  of  slavery  which  has  left  the  most 
serious  vices  in  civilization.  Even  the  humane  Las  Casas  consented 
to  the  substitution  of  the  African  slave  for  the  Indian.  Magellan 
lost  his  life  in  a battle  fought  to  compel  a heathen  king  to  become  a 
Christian.  Sir  John  Hawkins,  who  did  so  much  to  promote  the 
greatness  of  England,  traded  in  slaves  to  the  Guinea  Coast.  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  whose  body,  to  our  regret,  lies  in  the  sea  rather  than 
under  the  pavement  of  Westminster,  waged  cruel  war  upon  Span- 
iards in  a time  of  public  peace,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  was  a silent 
partner  in  his  voyages.  By  the  Assiento  of  1713,  Queen  Anne, 
through  her  licensed  agents,  became  the  sole  slave-trader  to  Spanish 
America  and  the  English  Colonies,  binding  herself  to  bring  144,000 
negroes  into  the  dominions  of  His  Catholic  Majesty  in  thirty  years. 
But  the  recital  becomes  flat,  stale,  and  unprofitable. 

No  doubt  Columbus’s  claim  to  be  the  messenger  of  the  new 
heaven  and  the  new  earth,  spoken  of  in  Isaiah  and  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse, was  something  more  than  the  common  claim  to  providential 
guidance.  He  was  not  a cool,  calculating,  well-balanced  philosopher 
or  man  of  affairs,  but  a prophet  and  a crusader.  He  was  born  a 
mystic,  he  lived  in  the  midst  of  mystical  ideas,  and  he  became  more 
and  more  mystical  as  his  years  and  infirmities  grew  and  his  disap- 
pointments and  humiliations  increased.  He  was  was  not  alone  in 
the  view  that  he  entertained  of  his  mission.  Ferdinand  Columbus, 
who  was  a learned  scholar,  thought  his  father’s  name  was  a token  of 


* t 


K 


29 

his  being  ordained  ‘ * to  carry  the  olive  branch  and  oil  of  baptism 
over  the  ocean,  like  Noah’s  dove,  to  denote  the  peace  and  union  of 
the  heathen  with  the  Church  after  they  had  been  shut  up  in  the  ark 
of  darkness  and  confusion.”  We  cannot  condemn  the  Genoese  for 
his  visions,  exstacies,  and  fanaticisms  without  condemning  scores  of 
men  whom  the  world  delights  to  honor.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be 
certain;  but  for  his  exalted  mental  temperament  he  never  would 
have  discovered  America.  If  Godfrey  and  his  companions  had  not. 
been  capable  of  believing  that  the  monks  had  found  the  spear  which 
pierced  the  Savior’s  side,  they  would  never  have  planted  the  banner 
of  the  Cross  on  the  walls  of  Jerusalem. 

•A 

Columbus  was  not  a great  statesman,  financier,  or  man  of 
science.  He  did  not  originate  the  idea  of  the  earth’s  sphericity,  or 
demonstrate  its  truth.  He  was  not  the  first  to  deduce  from  this  idea 
the  conclusion  that  somewhere  the  ends  of  the  earth  meet.  He  did 
not  make  the  first,  or  even  the  best,  estimate  of  the  expanse  of  longi- 
tude separating  Spain  from  Cathay.  He  was  not  the  first  man  to 
suggest  the  possibility  of  finding  the  East  in  the  AVest.  All  these 
ideas  were  more  or  less  current  in  European  seaports  before  he 
landed  on  the  quays  of  Lisbon.  He  did  not  even  understand  what 
he  had  accomplished.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  he  entertained 
for  a moment  the  idea  of  a new  continent,  but  only  to  fling  it  from 
him.  It  is,  however,  perfectly  easy  to  state  in  what  his  greatness- 
consisted.  He  united  the  scientific  insight,  the  religious  ardor,  the 
sanguine  temperament,  the  power  of  persuasion,  the  practical  seaman- 
ship, which  the  solution  of  the  old  problem  demanded.  He  took  up  the 
Western  sea-route  as  a practical  problem  and  devoted  his  life  to  its- 
solution;  in  journeyings  often,  in  weariness  and  painfulness,  ini 
watchings  and  denials,  in  contempt  and  contumely,  he  prosecuted 
this  solution  until  he  persuaded  the  Spanish  monarchs  to  give  him 
an  opportunity;  and,  once  embarked  upon  the  ocean,  he  held  on  his- 
way,  despite  the  fears  and  murmurs  of  his  crews,  until  he  had 
reached  the  borders  of  the  New  World  and  taught  his  successors  to* 
find  the  rest.  His  originality  was  in  achievement.  If  he  did  not 
think  the  thought,  he  did  the  deed. 


30 


The  longer  the  time  that  elapses,  the  greater  his  achievement  is 
seen  to  be.  It  added  sixteen  millions  of  square  miles  to  the  area  of 
the  earth  and  to  the  resources  of  civilization,  capable  of  sustaining 
a population  of  many  hundreds  of  millions  of  people.  The  mines 
and  forests,  the  waters,  mountains,  and  plains  contribute  rich  and 
new  elements  to  the  service  of  man.  The  natural  philosopher  finds 
the  most  abundant  materials  for  the  enrichment  of  science.  Span- 
iards, Portuguese,  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  and  Dutchmen  flock  into 
the  new  regions,  to  develope  their  civilization  under  virgin  con- 
ditions, and  afterwards  to  be  re-enforced  by  every  people  of  Europe. 
The  new  populations,  finding  an  embarrassment  of  natural  agents  at 
their  command,  and  stimulated  in  all  their  faculties,  swell  the  bur- 
den of  the  world’s  productions  and  wealth  beyond  the  measure  of 
their  numbers.  Not  only  do  the  new  peoples  attain  to  a high  stan- 
dard of  living  themselves,  but  they  contribute  to  raise  the  level  in 
the  Old  World.  Thus,  an  elevation  of  the  sphere  of  life  becomes 
co-incident  with  its  enlargement.  The  great  commerce,  henceforth 
disdaining  narrow  waters,  spreads  its  wings  on  the  great  oceans, 
where  the  new  conditions,  as  greater  distance  and  stormier  seas, 
compel  incalculable  improvements  in  the  art  of  navigation. 
Both  the  range  and  the  volume  of  exchanges  are  wonderfully 
expanded.  Colonization  brings  the  maritime  nations  into 
new  relations,  first  with  the  savages  and  then  with  one 
another;  and  out  of  these  relations  are  evolved  important  prin- 
ciples of  public  law,  as  the  rule  called  the  Right  of  Discovery. 
Nor  is  this  all;  the  letting  loose  of  the  fleets  of  the  world  under  the 
competition  of  a growing  commerce  raises  the  question  of  the  owner- 
ship of  the  ocean,  and  this  leads,  by  the  use  of  sword  and  pen,  to 
the  establishment  of  the  broad  maxim  that  the  high  seas  are  the 
common  highways  of  nations,  and  also  to  the  development  of  a large 
body  of  law  regulating  maritime  rights  and  duties.  Within  the 
commonwealths  planted  by  England,  it  soon  becomes  apparent  that 
men  will  not  move  forever  in  their  Old  World  grooves.  Govern- 
ment takes  on  new  forms  and  is  based  on  new  principles.  Individual 
liberty  is  enlarged  at  the  same  time  that  social  order  is  secured. 
Theology  and  ecclesiastical  discipline  assume  kindlier  forms,  and 


31 


the  principle  of  a free  church  in  a free  state  is  established.  Popular 
education  is  laid  upon  broad  and  deep  foundations,  and  progressively 
the  conclusion  is  worked  out  that,  learn  as  we  may  from  Europe, 
American  education  cannot  be  cramped  within  the  limits  of  the 
Prussian  ideas,  but  must  find  broader  scope  and  freer  expression.  A 
civilization  is  developed  that,  in  many  of  its  aspects,  is  the  marvel 
of  history.  Moreover,  these  larger  and  freer  tendencies  reach 
beyond  our  own  borders,  assisting  to  affect  important  changes  in 
both  American  continents,  and  going  to  swell  the  tide  of  democra- 
tizing influence  that  is  so  powerfully  affecting  society  in  the  Old 
World. 

In  view  of  its  results,  we  need  not  hesitate  to  place  the  dis- 
covery of  America  first  in  the  list  of  great  secular  transactions. 
It  is  easy  to  say  that  this  discovery  was  a blunder,  that  it  would 
soon  have  been  made  by  another  if  not  by  Columbus,  and  that  he 
had  no  idea  of  its  significance;  but  the  august  tribunal  of  history 
denies  all  such  motions  in  abatement  of  honor  made  at  her  bar  by 
special  pleaders.  Columbus  showed  great  qualities  in  a great  enter- 
prise, and  his  fame  is  perfectly  secure.  He  led  the  way  across  the 
Sea  of  Darkness.  He  opened  the  portals  of  the  Western  Hemis- 
phere, not  to  Castile  and  Leon  only,  but  to  humanity.  Four  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  American  pageant  began  to  move.  Then  it 
consisted  of  three  small  Spanish  caravels,  their  officers  and  crews. 
Now  it  consists  of  twenty  nations  and  a hundred  and  twenty  millions 
of  people.  The  man  who  stood  at  the  head  then  by  his  own  choice, 
stands  at  the  head  to-day  by  the  common  consent  of  mankind;  and 
when  four  hundred  more  years  have  passed,  and  the  pageant  has 
assumed  proportions  yet  grander  and  more  imposing,  he  will  still 
maintain  his  place. 


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